I couldn't find another sort of catch-all thread about this, so if there is one, please feel free to redirect!

Anyway, poopiebaby is 14 months now and eating more and more foods (and has slowed down ever so slightly on the breastfeeding). For the moment he's pretty good about eating almost anything we offer - especially if it comes straight off of one of our plates. He is really great about drinking water all day since he learned to drink from a straw, but I can't get him to drink anything else. I don't want him to drink juice, but I would like him to drink a little hemp milk or something every once in a while. He takes one sip then gets this hilarious look on his face and shakes his whole body, which is his signal that he doesn't like it. Any tips to get him to drink? I thought about blending a little bit of banana into it (he loves banana).

The Emperor wouldn't drink soy milk at all until he went to preschool at 20 months old. I gave it to him a d he was like, you're kidding, right? They gave it to him and he was like oh shiitake this rules. He started asking for it/accepting it when offered at home after that.

So um. I guess my advice is... Have someone unusual offer it to him?

I've heard of people pumping and mixing that milk with the desired non-breast milk but I would be way too lazy to pump for that.

Thanks you guys! I tried soy, rice, almond, oat and hemp milk, and he had the same reaction to every one. I most want him to drink the hemp milk for the fatty acids. I also have never been able to pump so that wasn't an option at all (and like C&S said, I think I would be too lazy to pump for that anyway!)

I ended up blending in some banana and he drank most of it! So, that was a success. I think I'll just keep that up, slowly decreasing the banana until he's drinking straight up hemp milk.

Also, we've just started dropping him off at a babysitters on Tuesday evenings and will for the next few weeks (we're taking a class, but we're thinking about keeping it up after so we can actually have a date night for the first time since he was born). I will try to get her to give it to him and see if that makes a difference - thanks!

I am seriously at a loss about what to feed Kai. This is a catch-all thread, so I should put my question here right?

We're out of the baby food phase now, since I started giving him finger foods he doesn't want to be spoon fed anymore. Well, he still is ok with being spoon fed his oatmeal/fruit in the morning, so at least there is that. He loves his oatmeal.

Then at lunch he's been eating peas, blueberries and puffs. He's been eating that happily every day, so at least that's something.One other meal that was sucessful was ditalini pasta with tiny bits of steamed carrots and green beans. But then lately he hasn't wanted the ditalini, so it is hit or miss.He likes bits of avocado, broccolli and cauliflower, but that's about it.He doesn't really want to eat beans any more, which is my biggest concern. This week I even tried making him chickpea balls, which you'd think he'd like, but nope he wouldn't even finish one and I tried twice on two different days, once without sauce and once with tomato sauce, no luck.

The main problem is he doesn't have teeth yet, so everything has to be soft but pick-upable. Also, he's allergic to soy.

We tried looking for soft bread today, because I figured I'd spread a thin layer of sunflower seed butter on it and see if he liked that, but couldn't find a single loaf of soft bread that didn't have soy. Next thing I'm going to try is crock-pot seitan, which comes out pretty soft so I figure he'll be able to gum it. Hopefully he'll like it or I don't know what I'll do for protein!

Does anyone have some suggestions for what I can feed him? This phase is stressing me out.

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

Peter loves hummus, and will even let me spoon feed it to him sometimes (although he's in the stage of I'LL DO IT when it comes to utensil use for the most part). I make my own bread, which I know isn't an option for everyone, but maybe if you found or made some bread he can eat and spread it with hummus (and of course sunflower seed butter as you said)? Peas are actually really high in protein, will he eat those?

Also, I've started adding quinoa flakes to Peter's oatmeal (I just replace some oats with the flakes, they seem to cook up pretty much the same). If you can find some, maybe that would be a way to sneak some more protein in? I'm sure some other mamas will have some good ideas!

Well I do have most of the box of quinoa flakes left, so I could try it. I had another idea since I last posted too - muffins. I'm thinking I could load them up with finely ground nuts, wheat germ and/or quinoa flakes, and sweeten them with fruit like bananas and applesauce. Now I just need to find a recipe since I'm not good at baking.

Then I thought maybe I could try one of the softer block uncheeses cut into cubes...

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

Aubade, do you have a blade coffee grinder? I grind up pumpkin seeds and/or sunflower seeds and hide them in everything (even pancakes and waffles and risotto -- and they are great in oatmeal). I love the mini-muffin idea! Raygold just feeds himself regular-sized muffins (I don't have any minimuffin paraphernalia).

Beetroot is 3 and is still happy for me to feed him, but Raygold, who is 16 months, has always hated being fed and usually ignores any incoming spoons and forks. He loves to feed himself navy beans and he will (albeit messily) eat peanut butter right off a spoon (I usually have to give him the spoon). He likes veggies, but likes them even more if they are in a sauce (I sneak a little tahini into tomato sauce for extra protein and it makes the tomato sauce nice and creamy).

Poopiebitch, I feel your pain about the not drinking nondairy-non-boobmilks. Raygold won't have anything to do with any non-boob milks (and he hates bananas, so no blending for me). I'm not concerned because he nurses so much; hopefully, he will give it a chance someday.

I have good feeding news - finally we've had some hits! Kai's been happily eating protein muffins for lunch and loves sunshine burgers - he will eat almost the whole burger for dinner. He also chomped up seitan this week. It was coated in some egyptian spices (cumin, coriander, sesame, cinnamon, etc) so I think he must like spicier food. I'm so relieved he's getting some good protein sources.

The weird thing is sunshine burgers were one of the only things I could eat consistently during pregnancy when I had food aversions to everything. I was also always craving ethiopian and indian food. I think I will try some indian food for him next.

Here's a question though - how much do you all worry about sodium content for your kids' food? If you just give them adult table food, doesn't it have too much salt?

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

Here's a question though - how much do you all worry about sodium content for your kids' food? If you just give them adult table food, doesn't it have too much salt?

I don't worry much about sodium. The RDA for a 2 year old according to various places on the internets (Mayo Clinic and some other sites) is ~1000 mg, somewhere between a half and a third of what's recommended for an adult. I would say that even for meals that he really, really loves, the Emperor is eating much closer to a third (and probably closer to a quarter or less) of the serving size we're having. So as long as we're not oversalting our grownup food, he shouldn't be getting too much either, if that makes sense.

My understanding is that you should worry about too much salt with babies under a year old, because their kidneys don't work too well yet, so they can't process excess sodium very well. Now that Lydia is over a year old, I've stopped worrying about too much salt, and just give her foods seasoned as we eat them (salt and everything).

Cool thanks. That definitely makes things easier. We got home late last night and it was so easy just to make him a prepared sunflower burger. He ate the whole thing! At least the sodium is relatively low in them.

We also had another hit yesterday - Colby from the uncheese cookbook! He loves it. I guess I know how I'm going to be spending my sundays from now on - making muffins, crockpot seitan and uncheese.

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

I am now ready for this thread. Walter turns one next week and it has dawned on me that I need to start paying more attention to what foods I'm offering him, especially as nursing is slowing down. He only nurses seriously before nap time and bedtime; if I remember I offer mid-morning and mid-afternoon, but sometimes he's not interested, and he isn't really drinking anything at night anymore, just sucking for a minute out of habit. I am actually shocked and a little sad at how little he's nursing. My baby!!

He absolutely refuses to be fed or to use a spoon. He will only eat finger foods. This means no fortified infant cereals and no yogurt. Luckily he likes everything he can pick up (except shredded apple--he can't stand it). So far he's gluten-free because he's eating what I'm eating, but I suppose at some point I'll let him have some wheat or barley even though it terrifies me. Some favorites: avocado, millet bread with hummus, pumpkin, noodles in any format, tofu, rice cakes, those damn puffs. He really loves carbs (he is my kid, after all).

I'm reading Raising Vegetarian Children and realizing I'm going to have to get real about planning. My questions are:

*Does anybody give kids as young as a year a supplement? I'm wondering about B12 specifically. Are there chewable vitamins for kids this young?

*Also, what about milk? He's been drinking water from a cup with meals for a while, but now that he's a year I can switch to some kind of milk. Would it be crazy to consider using formula as a mealtime beverage? It seems crazy when he's never had formula and we're still breastfeeding at least twice a day, but it might give me piece of mind to know he's getting the extra iron and fat. I've kind of been trained to think that formula is the devil, but it really seems to make sense here...on the one hand I'm all "human milk for human babies," but on the other hand, I'm not about to start pumping.

*Does anybody give kids as young as a year a supplement? I'm wondering about B12 specifically. Are there chewable vitamins for kids this young?

*Also, what about milk? He's been drinking water from a cup with meals for a while, but now that he's a year I can switch to some kind of milk. Would it be crazy to consider using formula as a mealtime beverage? It seems crazy when he's never had formula and we're still breastfeeding at least twice a day, but it might give me piece of mind to know he's getting the extra iron and fat. I've kind of been trained to think that formula is the devil, but it really seems to make sense here...on the one hand I'm all "human milk for human babies," but on the other hand, I'm not about to start pumping.

*Flax oil? RVC recommends sneaking in a 1/2 tsp daily.

I got dragged across the coals for having vegan babies, so here's my experience in vegan baby/toddler foods.

If you are still nursing him, you shouldn't have to worry about switching him to any kind of formula or milk. I didn't even give Raygold anything to drink other than boobie for ages. And now I give him juice -- (that's somebody's cue to call in the juice haters) -- or water. Lately, he's started asking for soy milk, so I give him a little of that now, too. If you want your little guy to get extra fat and nutrients, you could always look for some kind of fortified oat/coconut/almond/hemp/soy milk.I used to sneak a little extra oil into my kids' food because they are so skinny. (I also gave them avocados.) I sneaked flax oil into Beetroot's yoghurt and other foods, but stopped once I ran out. I take an omega supplement (I'm still breastfeeding both of them, althoguh Beetroot only nurses a few times a week now) and grind flaxseeds into some of their foods.

As for vitamins, there is a whole range of vitamin drops and chewable vitamins you can give babies and young children. (They vary so much, but you can find some with iron and B12 -- they pretty much all have D and some have (vegan) omega oils, too.) My kids BEG for vitamin drops! A lot of chewable vitamins say they are for older kids, but I think that's mostly because chewables pose a choking hazard -- if you don't think Walter will choke, you could try some. I gave Beetroot chewables at one point and he loved them.

The weird thing for me is that with all the flack I got for being vegan, it was mostly about calcium (which is not even a concern) and slightly about vitamin D (fair enough, since we live rather far north and you don't get very much from breastmilk) and nobody ever mentioned B12. I find a lot of vegan stuff is fortified with B12 (although mostly cereals, margarines, and soya yoghurt). My kids don't mind marmite (which is fortified with B12), so I make a sauce for their pasta with it sometimes (marmite, margarine, and a little starchy pasta water). I know you said you're GF, but you could do the same with non-wheat pasta. But you probably don't have access to Marmite anyway. ;p

I also sneak a little kelp into foods (like veggie sausages -- I have a GF recipe if you're interested -- Raygold was particularly fond of veggie sausages and he was kind of picky) every so often to make sure they get enough iodine (it's not a huge concern, but they don't typically iodise salt here).

I have made all of my kids' food from scratch and they both had totally different eating styles (Beetroot liked to be fed and totally wasn't picky, Raygold pretty much won't let you feed him and is just now getting less picky about what he eats), so if you want any recipes or food ideas or advice or whatever, hit a crab up. ;D

*Does anybody give kids as young as a year a supplement? I'm wondering about B12 specifically. Are there chewable vitamins for kids this young?

*Also, what about milk? He's been drinking water from a cup with meals for a while, but now that he's a year I can switch to some kind of milk. Would it be crazy to consider using formula as a mealtime beverage? It seems crazy when he's never had formula and we're still breastfeeding at least twice a day, but it might give me piece of mind to know he's getting the extra iron and fat. I've kind of been trained to think that formula is the devil, but it really seems to make sense here...on the one hand I'm all "human milk for human babies," but on the other hand, I'm not about to start pumping.

*Flax oil? RVC recommends sneaking in a 1/2 tsp daily.

We recently started the Emperor on chewable vitamins when he stopped nursing entirely. His pediatrician said young kids are really good at storing nutrients and since they're so small (even big guys like the Emperor and Walter), most of the time they don't really *need* a vitamin but it doesn't hurt. He suggested giving half a chewable vitamin to start with because again, since they're so little, giving a whole vitamin is kind of pointless as they don't really need all that much. We actually found a vegan one that's a serving size of 2 chewable tablets and just give him one, because we're very lazy.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with formula at mealtimes. If you're worried about his iron, that's really easy to have checked at the doctor (I forget if you guys do well baby visits or not) and if it's not an issue, no sense buying/mixing formula if you don't need to. Fat is easy to introduce elsewhere... I think littlebird had a really good post about this but it might have been on the old PPK... you can basically add extra fat to any solid food he eats. If he likes pumpkin, drizzle the cubes with olive oil. Etc, etc.

We don't do flax oil. I don't have a compelling reason for/against, we just don't.

We started giving Dahlia a chewable vegan vitamin (I buy em from Vegan Essentials I think) every morning once she stopped formula at a year old, more to appease the pediatrician than anything. Like c&s said, the bottle says take 2 but it's intended for slightly older kids and we just give her one. And when she was younger - and still now, when I remember - I add Udos oil to her food, and almost everything she eats has a hearty sprinkle of homemade faux parm (walnuts, nooch etc) on it because she adores it.

I don't worry too much about fats for her; even though she's on the skinnier side (only about 32lbs), as her dr says "I'd rather that than have her be obese like so many kids."

Personally, I wouldn't bother with formula at mealtimes. If you're worried about his iron, that's really easy to have checked at the doctor (I forget if you guys do well baby visits or not) and if it's not an issue, no sense buying/mixing formula if you don't need to.

Had had blood drawn at 6 months and his iron was a little low then. I gave him trivisol drops with iron for a while, but then we ran out and I never got more. I worry I am going to damage his brain by not giving him the right nutrients! I can't handle this much responsibility!

I also have been slowly weaning Kai onto oat milk. It has 35% calcium, 25% vit d, 10% iron (& 4 g protein), though those DVs are for adults. He was getting 5-6 4 oz bottles a day, now he is down to 2 formula bottles just before naps, plus 2 8 oz straw cups of oat milk (and nursing before bed/in morning). next week I'm going to eliminate another of those bottles, then the last one in the next week or two. I'd like to get him to drink 3 8-10 oz cups of milk a day. I also put a bit of flax seed oil in each cup of oat milk. Luckily he really has taken to the oat milk and drinks it down no problem.

When we went to his 1 year well visit the stupid doctor who said I should feed him chicken also gave me a huge hassle about vitamins. He asked me what I was giving him and I couldn't remember at the time the exact info on what's in his Rainbow Light powder, so he started hassling me and asked me if they were even vitamins for kids! I was like, "Are you kidding me?! I can read a box of vitamins!!" He gave me a prescription for some with flouride anyway, but I didn't fill it. Then he also said I have to take Kai for blood work to get his levels checked, which I'm going through with because I just want to make sure everything is ok, especially since he didn't get any teeth until a week or two ago. So anyway, long story - I am going back to this stupid Dr. Chicken one more time on Nov 28th just to get the results, and I'm going to show him the vitamins so I'll see what he says. It would be terrible is something is wrong, but if everything is ok I'm not too big to admit that it is going to be awesome to get to be all HA IN YOUR FACE!

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite

So I got the results of the blood test back on Friday. Kai is all good! Haha Dr. Chicken, I told you so!

The only thing is he was a touch low on iron. His level was 10.8, but 11 is normal. Seems close enough to me. I'm actually pretty surprised considering he gets a full serving of iron-fortified oatmeal every morning, plus iron fortified formula/oatmilk, and the vitamins.

So I'm actually pretty glad I've been giving him the extra vitamins. It also makes me think maybe you might want to give Walter something extra too Mitten, if he already was low last year.

_________________I'm not asking for utopian dreams...just a little peace in this world. That's a logical thing. - Deee-Lite